The 2014 SBC Championships will be held from March 12-16 at the Lakefront Area in New Orleans, La.

The conference men’s basketball championship tournament starts on Thursday, March 13 and concludes Sunday, March 16 with the championship game scheduled for a 12 p.m. (CT) opening tipoff. The SBC Championship contest will be televised live on ESPN2 as part of “Selection Sunday.”

The conference women’s championship tournament is slated to get underway Wednesday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 15 culminating in the championship game to be held at 8 p.m. (CT) on ESPN3.

“Moving our tournament dates to matchup with the last weekend of the season is something that we have been working very hard on with ESPN and Lakefront Arena,” said Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson. “Our schedule now gives our fans more flexibility when traveling to New Orleans and gives them a long weekend to enjoy the city. Our men’s basketball championship game airing on ESPN2 on Selection Sunday provides us with an excellent opportunity to showcase the league.”

This past spring, the Sun Belt Conference announced the 2014 championships will feature the top eight teams from the regular season standings and not the entire membership. Additionally, the men’s tournament for 2014 will be conducted with byes to the quarterfinals for the third and fourth seeded teams, while the first and second seeded teams will receive byes to the semifinals. The 2014 women’s tournament will feature a more traditional eight-team bracket.

In addition to the men’s finals airing on ESPN2, every game of the men’s tournament will be televised on the Sun Belt Network. The semifinals of the women’s tournament will also be shown on the Sun Belt Network, which is a partnership of regional sports networks Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS) and Cox Sports Television (CST).

Ticket books for the 2014 conference men’s and women’s tournaments will be available to purchase from Sun Belt Conference institutions and from Ticketmaster in January 2014.